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LB 2827 
i.MS 
Copy 1 



REPORT 



SVXDUY BESOLUTIOJYS 



RELATIVE TO 



APPROPRIATIONS OF PUBLIC LAND 



PURPOSES OF EDUCATION;, 



TO TBE 



SENATE OF MARYLAND, 

JANUARY SO, 1S31» 



■PmUSHRD BT AUTH0niT7\ 






J. GREEN— PRINT, 



./ 



\ 



EEPORT, &c. 



THE Committee to whom was referred so much of the 
Governor's message, as relates to education and public in- 
struction, beg leave to report — 

That they concur with his excellency in be- 
lieving education, and a general diffusion of know- 
ledge, in a government constituted like ours, to be of 
great importance, and thnt ^"^in proportion as the St i't- 
ture of a government gives weisiht to public opinion, it is esi- 
sential that public opinion should be enlightened.'' Yoar 
committee consider our government as emphatically a go- 
vernment of opinion. A general diffusion of knowledge, 
which is essential to its right adaiiaistration, cannot be ef- 
fected, unless the people are educated. No high degree 
of civilization, of moral power and dignity, or of intellec- 
tual excellence; no superiority in science, in literature, or 
in liberal and useful arts, which constitutes the nobL^st na- 
tional supremacy;, can be attained without the aid of semi- 
naries of learning. The establishment of literary institu- 
tions, then, of all grades, from the common school, up to 
the university, becomes the first duty of the legislature of 
a free people. 

Your committee are well aware of the difficulty, in the 
present embarrassed state of our pecuniary concerns, of 
providiiig the means of making education general. They 
are fully sensible, that, at this time, large appropriations 
out of the public treasury, for this purpose, all-iraporttvnt 
as it is, cannot be expected. They deem it therefore their 
duty to recai] to your notice a Report and certain Resolu- 
tions, presented to the senate at the last session by a com- 
mittee of a like nature with the present, which has beefi 
referred to your comoiittee, as a part of the unfinished bu- 
siness. The object of those Resolutions was to call the at- 



>,. 



(4) 

tentioii of congress, and the legislatures of the several stategj 
to the Public Lauds, as a fund, from which appropriations 
for the purposes of education may with justice be claim- 
ed, not only by Maryland, but all the original states, and 
three of the new ones. 

One thirty-sixth part of all the states and territories, (ex- 
cept Kentucky,) whose waters fall into the Mississippi and 
the Gulf of Mexico, has been appropriated by Congress, 
wherever the ludian title has been extinguished, and pro- 
visions made for further appropriations, according to the 
same ratio, wherever the Indian title may hereafter be ex-> 
tinguished, for the support of common schools, and other 
large appropriations have been made for the support of 
seminaries of a higher grade. Your committee are of 
opinion, that the states, for whose beneUt no such appro- 
priations have been made, are entitled to ask them of Con^ 
gress, not as a matter of favour, but of justice. That this 
may more fully appear, especially as the right of those 
states to an equal participation, with the states, formed out 
of the Public Lands, in all the benefits derived from them, ha» 
been doubted, your committee have deemed it proper to take- 
a cursory view of the manner, in which they have been 
acquired. 

Before the war of the revolution, and indeed for some 
years after it, several of the states possessed, within their 
nominal limits, extensive tracts of waste and unsettled 
lands. These states were all, at that epoch, regal, and 
■not proprietary pYOYiuceSf and the crown, either directly or 
through the medium of officers, whose authority had been, 
prescribed or assented to by the crown, was in the habit 
of granting those lands. The right of disposing of them 
■^as claimed and exercised by the crown in some form or 
other. They might therefore, with strict propriety, be 
called the property of the crown. 

A question arose soon after the declaration of indepen- 
dence, whether those lands should belong to the United 



(5) 

Btates, or to ^he individual states, withia whose nominal 
limits they were situated. 

However that question might be decided, no doubt could 
be entertained, that the property and jurisdiction of the 
soil were acquired by the common s^vord, purse and blood, 
of all the states, united in a common eifort. Justice, there- 
fore, demanded that, considered in the light of property, 
the vacant lands should be sold to defray the expenses, in- 
curred in the contest, by which they were obtained: and 
the future harmony of the states required, that the extent 
and ultimate population of the several states, should not 
be so disproportionate, as they would be if their nominal 
limits should be retained. 

This state, as early as the 80th October 177^, expressed 
its decided opinion, in relation to the vacant lands, by an 
unanimous resolution of the convention, which framed our 
constitution and form of government, in the foUowing 
words, viz. '^^liesolved iinanimously, That it is the opini- 
^'on of this convention, that the very extensive claim of 
'*the state of Virginia to the back lands hath no foundation 
^'in justice, and that if the same, or any like claim is ad- 
^^mitted, the freedom of the smaller states and the liberties 
"of America may be thereby greatly endangered; this con- 
^^vention being firmly persuaded, that, if the dominion over 
"those lands should be established by the blood and trea- 
**sure of the United States, such lands ought to be consi- 
"dered as a common stock, to be parcelled out at proper 
'^times into convenient, free, and independent govern- 
"ments." 

In the years 1777 and 1778, the General Assembly, by 
resolves, and instructions to their delegates in Congress, 
expressed their sentiments in support of their claim to a 
participation in these lands, in still stronger language, and 
declined acceding to the confederation, on account of the 
refusal of the states claiming them exclnsivolij to cede 
them to the United States. 'Tliey continued to decline, on 



(6) 

tiie same grounds, luiiil 178 i, when to prevent tlie injuri- 
ous impression, that di'-^sention existed among the states 
occasioned by the refusal of Maryland to join the confede- 
ration, they authorised their delegates in f ^ongress to sub- 
scribe the articles; protesting, however, at the same time,, 
agaiast the inference, (which might otherwise have beea 
,drawn.) that Maryland had relinquished its claim to a par- 
ticipation in the western lands. 

Most of the other states contended, on similar grounds 
with those taken by M iryhind, for a participation in those 
lands. 

By the treaty of peace in 1783, Great Britain relinquish- 
ed '*to the United States all claim to the government pro- 
periy, and territorial rights of the same, and every part 
thereof 

The justice and sound policy of ceding the unsettled, 
lands, urged with great earnestness and force by those 
states, who had united in conquering them from Great 
jBritain, strengthened by the surrender, on the part of Great 
I^ritain, of her rights of property and jurisdiction to the 
United States collectively^ and aided moreover, by the 
elevated and patriotic spirit of disinterestedness and con- 
ciliation, which then animated the ^vhole confederation, at 
length made- the requisite impression upon the states, which 
had exclusively claimed those lands; and each of them, 
with tlie exception of Georgia, made cessions of their 
respective claims within a few years after the peace. 
Those states were Massachusetts, Connecticut, New 
York, Yirginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina^ 
the charters of v/hich, with the exception of New York, 
extended westwardly to the South Sea or Pacific Ocean, 
This circumstance gave to Massachusetts and Connecti- 
cut a joint claim Vvith Virginia, to such parts of what was 
then called the North Western Territory, as cf»me within 
the breadth of their respective charters. The rest of that 
territory lay withifi the lirails of the charter of Virginia. 



(7) 

New York, iiideecl, had an indefinite claim to a part of it. 
Cessions, however, from all these states, at len£;tli com- 
pleted the title of the United States, and placed it beyond 
all controversy. 

The state of North Carolina ceded its claim to the ter- 
ritory which now constitutes the state of Tennessee. 

Georgia, (whose charter also extended westwardly to 
the Pacific Ocean,) at length, in 180S, ceded the terri- 
tory, which now constitutes the states of Mississippi and 
Alabama, except a small part on the south side of them, 
which was acquired under the treaty ceding Louisiana. 
The conditions of that cession were, that the United States 
should pay one million two hundred thousand dollars to 
Georgia, and extinguish the Indian title within the iimits> 
which she reserved. 

The United States have, in this manner, acquired an 
indisputable title to all the public lands east of the Mis- 
sissippi. 

All the territory west of the Mississippi, together with 
the southern extremity of the states of Mississippi and 
Alabama, was purchased of France for fifteen millions of 
dollars. This sum, as well as the sums required for the 
purchase of the Indian title to the public lands, was paid 
out of the treasury of the United States. 

So far therefore as acquisition of public lands has been 
made by purchase, it has been at the common expense; — so 
far as it has been made by war, it has been by the 
common force — and so far as it has been made bv ces- 
sions from individual states, it has been upon the ground, 
expressly stipulated in most of the acts or deeds of ces- 
sion, that the lands should be ^^considered," to use the 
words of the act passed for that purpose by the state which 
made the largest cession, ^^as a coinmon fund, for the use 
and benefit of such of the states as have become, or shall 
become, members of the confederation or federal alliance 
of said states, according to their usual resjpective propor- 



( 8 ) 

iions in tJie general charge and eocpenditiire, and shall 
faithfully and bona fide he disposed of for that purjtose^ 
and for no other use or purpose whatsoever.^' 

In whatever point of view therefore the public lands are 
considered, whether as acquired by purchase, conquest or 
cession, they are emphatically the common property of the 
Union. They ought to enure, therefore, to the common 
use and benefit of all the states, in just proportions, and 
cannot be appropriated to the use and benefit of any parti- 
cular state or states, to the exclusion of the others, without 
an infringement of the principles, upon which cessions from 
states were expressly made, and a violation of the spirit 
of our national compact, as well as the principles of jus- 
tice and sound policy. . 

So far as these lands have been sold, and the proceeds 
been received into the national treasury, all the states have 

derived a Justly proportionate benefit from them: — So far 
as they have been appropriated for purposes of defence^ 
there is no grosmd for compl lint; for the defence of every 
part of the country is a commim concern:— -So far, io & 
word, as the proceeds have been applied to national, and 
not to STATE purposes, althou^'h the expenditure may have 
been local, the course of the general government has been 
consonant to the principles an I spirit of the Federal Con- 
stitution. But so far as appropriations have been made^ 
in favour of any state or states, to the exclusion of the 
rest, where the appropriations woold have been beneficial^ 
and might have been extended to a.il alike, your committee 
conceive there has been a departure from that line of poli- 
cy, which impartial josticej so essential to the peace, bar- 
saonyj, and stability of the anion, imperiously prescribes. 
Your comBiittee then proceed to inquire, whether the 
acts of Congress, in relation to appropriations of public 
lands^ have beea conformable to the dictates of impartial 
justice. 



(9) 

By tl>e laws relating to the survey and sale of the pub- 
lic lands, one thirty-sixth part of them has been reserved 
and appropriated in perpetuity for the support of commoa 
schools. The public lands are laid off iijto townships, 
six miles square, by lines running with the cardinal points: 
these townships are then divided into thirty-six sections, 
each a mile square, and containing 640 acres, which ar.. 
designated by numbers. Section No. 16, which is 
always a central section, has invariably been appropriated, 
(and provision has been made by law for the like appro- 
priations in future surveys,) for the support of common 
schools in each township. 

In Tennessee, in addition to the appropriation of a sec- 
tion in each township for common schools, SOO,dOO acres 
have been assigned for the endowment of colleges and 
academies. Large appropriations have also been made in 
Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, 
Missouri, Michigan, and the North Western Territory, for 
4he erection and maintenance of seminaries of learning of a 
higher grade than common schools. Your committee have 
not had an opportunity of ascertaining the exact amount 
of those appropriations, but from such examination as 
they have been able to make, it is believed, that they 
bear a smaller proportion to those for common schools, 
than in Tennessee. Tennessee, in Seybert's Statisti- 
cal Annals, is stated to contain 40,000 square miles, 
which are equal to §5,600,000 acres. One 36th part 
of this number of acres, which is the amount of ap- 
propriation for common schools, is711?lii. The appro- 
priation for colleges and academies in that state, is, as 
above stated, 200,000 acres, being something less than 
two 7ths of the common school appropriation It is be- 
lieved, that the appropriations in the other states and ter- 
ritories for seminaries of a higher grade, do not amount to 
more than two lOths or one 5th of the appropriations for 

n 



( 18 ) 

common schools. Your committee think they will not be 
far from the truth in estimating them at that proportion. 

The states and territories east of the Mississippi, which 
have had appropriations made in their favour for the sup- 
port of literary institutions; that is to say, Ohio, Indiana^ 
Illinois, Mississippi, A.l;ibama, Michigan, and the North 
Western Territory, are estimated, in Seybert's Statistical 
Annals, to contain of unsold lauds^ 200,000,000 acres. 
Of lands sold, 11,697,1^5 

To which add Tennessee, S5,600,000 



And the aggregate number of acres in 

those states and territories will be 237jS97;1^5. 

One ^6th part of that aggregate num- 
ber, being the am )untof appropria- 
tion for common schools, is 

Add one 5th part of the common school 
appropriation as the appropriation 
for Colleges and Academies, 



6,591,586 acres. 



1,S18,317 acres,. 



And the aggregate number of acres ap- 
propriated for the purposes of educa- 
tion in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Ten- 
nessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Mi- 
chigan, and the North Western Ter- 
ritory, will be 

At S3 per acre, which is less, ac- 
cording to Seybert's Htatistical An- 
nuls , than the average price of 
all the public lands, which have 
heretofore been sold, the amount iu 
money will be 



7,909,903. 



S15,819,S06. 



-Bejbert estimates the lands purchased 
of France by the United States in 
1803, at 



S00,000,000 acres. 



1 11 ) 

By the laws relating to the survey and 

sales of lands in Louisiana, Missou- 
ri and Arkansaw, appropriations of 

land for the purposes of education 

iiave been made after the same ratio, 

as in the new states and territories 

on the east of tlie Mississippi, and it 

is presumed the same policy will be 

adhered to in relation to the whole of 

the public lands on the west of that 

river. On that supposition the ap- 
propriations for common schools, 

that is, one 36th partof;EOO,000,000 

acres, will be 5,553,555 acres. 

Add for Colleges and Academies one 

5th part of the appropriation for 

common schools 1,111?111 acres, 

And the aggregate number of acres '^ 

will be 6,666,6661. 

At iSS per acre; the jvmouiit in money 

will be 13,333,3331.. 



To the aggregate nnmber of acres ap- 
propriated for the support of litera- 
ry institutions on the east side of the 
Mississippi, 7?909,903^ 

Add the aggregate, number of acres, 
which if the system heretofore fol- 
lowed; should be, (as it ought to be) 
adhered to, will ultimately be appro- 
priated to literary purposes on the 
west of the Mississippi 6,686,6661.^ 

And the total of literary appropriation 
in the new states and territories will 
be 14,576,569x acres. 

At 8:5 per acre, the amount in money 

Will be S29,l53,139tr 



i 12 ) 

Such is the vast amount of property, destined for the sup- 
port and encouragement of learning in the states and ter- 
ritories, carved out of the public lands. These large appro- 
priations of land, the common property of the union, will 
enure to the exclusivs, benefit of those states and territo- 
ries. They are appropriations for state, and not for na- 
tional purposes; — they are of such a nature, that they 
might have been extended to all the states^ — they there- 
fore ought to have been thus extended. All the other 
states paid their full share for the purchase of the region 
west of the Mississippi, and for the extinguishment of tho 
Indian title, on both sides of that river. Massachusetts^ 
Connecticut, Yirginia, North Carolina, South Carolina 
and Georgia, besides paying their proportion of those ex- 
penses, ceded all their vacant territory on the east side of 
the Mississippi. All these states, therefore, might with great 
propriety complain of partiality and injustice, if their ap- 
plications to Congress for similar appropriations for like 
purposes should be refused. But of this refusal they need 
have no apprehension, if they are true to their own interests,, 
and are united in asserting them; for, if contrary to all rea* 
^onablo expectation the states, which have already received 
the benefit of literary appropriations, should be opposed to 
the extension of them to their sister states, the latter ar& 
more than two thirds in number of all the United States, 
and have a still larger proportion of representatives in 
Cop.gress. These states are Vermont, New Hampshire, 
Maine, Massachusetts, Khode Island, Connecticut, New- 
York, New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, 
Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and 
Ii entucky, and together have one hundred and sixty-nine 
ie^nesentatives in Congress. The favoured states on the 
contrary have only seventeen representatives. The ex- 
chided states have therefore an overwhelming majority in 
Cijnirre'^s, and have it completely in their power to make 
appropriations for the benefit of their literary institutions j, 



(13) ^ ^ 

iipou the improbable supposition, that the representatives 
of the favoured states would oppose them in Congress, a 
supposition too discreditable to their character for justice to 
be admitted. 

The magnitude of the appropriations, that would be re- 
q^uired to place the states, which have not yet enjoyed any 
for the purposes of education, upon an equal footing with, 
those, in whose favour they have already been made, can 
afford no just ground of objection. For superior as the 
population of those states is, yet if the ratio of appropri- 
ation be observed with regard to them, which has been a- 
dopted in relation to the others, i. e. one 36th part of the 
plumber cf ac,res in the territory of each for common schools, 
and one 5th part of that one 36tli for colleges and acade- 
mies, the number of acres required will be much less than 
has already been given to the favoured states and territo- 
ries — it will indeed amount to but a very small portion of 
the public lands: For according to Seybert's Statistical An- 
nals, those lands in 1813 amounted to 400,000,000 acres. 
The amount required for all the excluded states would be 
less than two and a half per centum of that quantity: — to 
shew which more clearly, your committee beg leave to 
submit the following statei]j,8nt, founded upon calculations 
made upon the extent of territory in each of those states, 
as laid down in Beybert's Statistical Annals, 
[fe^^ew-Hampshire contains 6,074,240 acres. 
One S6th part of that extent, 
being the number of acres 
of public land, to which that 
state is entitled for the sup- 
port of common schools, is 168,728 
One 5th part of that 36th to 
which New-Hampshire is en- 
titled for the support of Col- 
leges and Academies, is 33,'7'45 



Total for New -Hampshire^ 202,473 acres. 



(1*) 

Vermont contains 6,551,680 acres. 
One 36th part for common 

schools, is 181,991 

One 5th of one 36th for Colleges 

and Academies, ^6,398 

Total for Vermont 218,389 acres, 

Massachusetts including Maine, contains 28,990,000 acres. 
One S6th part for common 

schools, 805,277 

One 5th of one 36th for Colleges 

and Academies, 161,055 



Total for Massachusetts and Maine 966,333 acres, 
Khode Island contains 1,01 1,200 acres. 
One 36th part for common 

schools, 28,088 

One 5th of one 36th for colleges, 5,617 



Total for Rhode Island, 38,705 acres. 

Connecticut contains 2,991,360 acres. 
One 36tli part for common 

schools, 83,093 

One 5th of one 36th for Colleges 

and Academies^ 16,618 



Total for Connecticut, 99,7il acres, 

New York contains 28,800,000 acres. 
One 36th part for common 

schools, 800,000 

One 5th of one 36th for Colleges 

and Academies, 160,000 



Total for New York, 960,000 acres; 

New Jersey contains 5,32^,800 acres. 
One 36th part for common 

schools, 444,577 



( 45) 

One Sih part of one rMh for Col- 
leges and Academies, S8,917 



Total for New Jersey, 
Pennsylvania contains 395873;000 acres. 
One 3(ith part for common 

schools, 829,777 

One 5th of one 36th for Colle- 
ges and Academies, 165,959 



Total for Pennsylvania, 
Delaware contains 1,356,800 acres. 
One 36th part for common 

schools, S7;688 

One 5th of one 36tli for Colle- 
ges and xlcademies, 7)5Blf 



Total for Delaware, 
Maryland contains 8,960,000 acres. 
One 36th part for common 

schools, §48^888 

One 5th of one 86th for Colle- 
ges and Academies, 49,777 



Total for Maryland, 
Virginia contains 14,800,000 acres. 
One 36th part for common 

schools, 1,S4!^1,4!44 

One 5th of one 36th for Colle- 
ges and Academies, 248,888 



173,494 acresfc 



995,733 acres. 



45,§S5 acre$. 



^98,666 acres. 



Total for Virginia, 1,493,332 acres. 

North Carolina contains ^9,7^0,000 acres. 
One 86th part for common 

schools, 825,555 



( i6) 

One 5tli of one 86tli for Colle- 
ges and Academies^, 165,111 

Total for Nortli Carolina, 980,656 acres. 

South Carolina contains 15,411,200 acres. 
One S6th part for common 

schools, 4S8,088 

One 5tli of one 36th for Colle^ 

ges and Academies, 85,617 



Total for South Carolina, 5i3)705 acres, 

Georgia contains 39,680,000 acres. 

One 36th part for common 

schools, 1,103,SSS^ 

One 0»fch of one S6th for Colle- 
ges and Academes, ^20,444 

Total for Georgia, ^,333^666 acres. 

Kentucky contains 83,000,000 acres. 

One 36th part for common 

schools, 888,888 

One 5th of one S6th for Colle- 
ges and Academies, 177,777 

Total for Kentucky, 1,086,665 acres. 

Total amount of literary appropriation 
necessary to do justice to the states 
which have not yet had any, 9,370,760 acre&* 

The senate will perceive from the foregoing calculations, 
that if the ratio of appropriation for the purposes of edu- 
cation, which has hitherto been observed, be adopted with 
respect to the sixteen states, which as yet have received no 
appropriations of that nature, a much smaller number of 
acres will be required, than has already been assigned to 
the western region of our country; it would be an incou- 



( 17 ) 

siderable portion of the aggregate of public lands; — a 
mucli less quantity, indeed, than now remains unsold in 
any of the states, which have been formed out of them, 
with the exception perhaps of Ohio and Tennessee. The 
magnitude of the appropriations then, which equal justice 
now requires, cannot be considered as a reasonable objectioa 
to them, and as the literary appropriations, that have here- 
tofore been made, have been granted for state and not 
for NATIONAL purposes, according to the just principle set 
forth in the beginning of this report, similar appropriations 
ought to be extended to all the states. 

The circumstance, that the lands, which have heretofore 
been appropriated for the purposes of education, are a part 
of the territory of the states, for whose benefit they hav& 
been assigned, can furnish no reasonable ground for tho 
preference, which has been given thera. The public lands 
are not the less the common property of all the states, 
because they are situated within the jurisdictional limits of 
the states and territories, which have been formed out of 
ihem. 8uch states have no power to tax them; — they 
cannot interfere with the primary disposal of them, op 
with the regulations of Congress for securifig the title to 
purchasers:— -it is in fact €5ongress alone, that can enacfc 
laws to affect them. The interest, which a citizen of an 
Atlantic state has in them, as a part of the property of the 
Union, is the same as the interest of a citizen residing in a 
state formed out of them. But hitherto appropriations of 
them for state purposes have only been made in favour of 
such states; and the citizen on the eastern side of the Al- 
legjjany may well complain, that property, in which he has 
a common interest witji his fellow-citizen on the western 
side, sliould be appropriated exclusively to the use of the 
latter. That this is the fact in regard to that part of the 
public lands, which have been assigned for the support of 



(18) 

literary institutious and the promotion of education, cannot 
be denied. 

Your committee do not censure the enlightened policy^ 
which governed Congress in making liberal appropriations 
of land for the encouragement of learning in the west, noi^ 
do they wish to withdraw one acre of them from the pur- 
poses, to which they have been devoted; but they think 
they are fully justified in saying, that impartial justice re- 
quired, that similar appropriations should have been ex- 
tended to all the states alike. Suppose Congress should 
appropriate 200,000 acres of the public lands for the sup- 
port of Colleges and Academies in New-York; and Vir- 
ginia, who gave up and ceded a great portion of those 
lands to the United States, on the express condition, that 
'Hliey should he considered as a common fund for the use 
and benefit of all of them^ according to their usual respec- 
tive proportions in the general charge and expenditure,^^ 
should apply for a similar grant, and her application 
should be refused: — would she not have a right to com- 
plain of the partiality of such a measure, and to charge 
the federal government with a breach of good faith, and 
an infringement of the conditions, on which the cession was 
made? It cannot be denied, that she would. Congress 
have already made a grant of S00,000 acres of land for 
the support of Colleges and Academies, not indeed in 
New-York, but in Tennessee. Would not Virginia, if 
she now made an application for a like grant, and were re-f 
fused, have the same reason to complain, as if New-York^ 
instead of Tennessee, had been the favoured state? 

Your committee beg leave to illustrate, by another ex- 
ample, the equity of the principle, which it is the object 
of this report to establish. Foreign commerce and the 
public lands are alike legitimate sources, from which the 
United States may and do derive revenue. Foreign com- 
merce has fixed its seat in the Atlantic states. Suppose 



/ 

/ 



( 19 ) 

Congress should pass a law, appropriating one 36tli part 
of the revenue, collected from foreign commerce in the 
ports of Baltimore, New- York, Boston, Norfolk, Charles- 
ton and Savannah, to the support of common schools 
throughout the states, in which they are situated: the 
other states, every person will admit, would have a right to 
complain of the partiality and injustice of such an act; — and 
yet, in what respect would an act appropriating one 36th 
part of the revenue, derived from foreign commerce to the. 
iise of schools in the six states, in whicli it should be 
produced, be more partial or unjust than an act appro- 
priating one 36th part of the public land, in Ohio, Tn.- 
diana, Illinois, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama^ 
the six states, in which the public lands on this side of 
the Mississippi are chiefly situated, to their exclusive bene- 
fit in the maintenance of their schools? 

Your committee are aware, that it has been said, that the 
appropriation of a part of the public lands to the purposes 
of education, for the benefit of the states formed out of 
them, has had the effect of raising the value of the residue, 
by inducing emigrants to settle upon them. Although in the 
preambles of such of the acts on this subject, as have pre- 
ambles, the promotion of religion, morality and knowledge, 
as necessary to good government and the happiness of man- 
kind, have been assigned as the reason for passing them, and 
no mention has been made of the consequent increase in 
the value of the lands, that would remain, as a motive 
for the appropriation, yet the knowledge, that provision 
had been made for the education of children in the west, 
though other motives usually influence emigrants, might 
have had its weight in inducing some to leave their 
native homes. If such has been the effect, the value 
of the residue of the lands has no doubt been increa- 
sed by it. This increase of value however has not 
been an exclusive benefit to the Atlantic states; but a bene- 
fit common to all the states;, eastern and western^ while the 



( so ) 

latter still enjoy exclus^ively the advantage, derived from tlie 
appropriations of laud for literary purposes. The inci- 
dental advantage of the increase in value of the public 
lands, in consequence of emigration, if it is to be consi- 
dered in the light of a compensation to the old states, must 
be shewn to be an advantage ecccliisively enjoyed by them. 
That this however is not the case is perfectly obvious — 
because the proceeds of the lands, thus raised in value by 
emigration, Avhen sold, go into the United States treasury, 
and are applied, like other revenues, to the general benefit 
— in other words, to national and not to state purposes. 

It is moreover most clear, that this increase of the value 
of lands in consequence of emigration, produces a peculiar 
benefit to the inhabitants of the new states, in which the 
inhabitants of the other states, unless owners of land in 
the neW;, have no participation. This benefit consists in the 
increase of the value of their own private property. 

On the other hand, it is undoubtedly true, that emigra- 
tion is injurious to the Atlantic states, and to them alone. 
While it has had the effect of raising the price of lands m 
the west, it has, in an equal ratio at least and probably in 
a much greater, prevented the increase of the value of 
lauds in the states, wdiich the emigrants have left. It is 
an indisputable principle in political economy, that the 
price of every object of purchase, whether land or person- 
al property, depends upon the relation, which supply 
bears to demand. The demand for land would have been, 
the same, or very nearly so, for the same number of peo- 
ple, as are contained within the present limits of the United 
States, if they had been confined within the limits of the At- 
lantic states. But the supply in that case would have been 
most materially diiferent. It must have been go small in 
proportion to the demand, as to occasion a great rise in the 
value of land in the Atlantic states; for it cannot be doubt- 
ed, that it is the inexhaustible supply of cheap and good 
land in the west^ which has kept down the price of land 



(at ) 

on the eastern side of the Alleghany. If the Atlantic states 
had been governed by an exclusive, local and selfish poli- 
cy, every impediment would have been thrown in the way 
of emigration, which bas constantly and uniformly operat- 
ed to prevent the growth of their numbers, wealth and- 
power; for which disidvantage the appreciation oi their; 
interest in the public lands, consequent upon emigration^ 
can afford no adequate compensation. It appearing then 
perfectly clear to your committee, that emigration is exclu- 
sively advantageous to the new states, whose population^ 
wealth and power, are thereby increased at the expense of 
those states, which the emigrants abandon, the inducement 
to emigration furnished by the appropriation of public 
lands for the purposes of education in the west, instead of 
affording a reason for confining such appropriations to that 
quarter of the Union, offers the most weighty considera- 
tions of both justice and polic}', in favour of extending 
them to the states, which have not yet obtained them. 

Your committee beg leave to present one further reflec- 
tion to the consideration of the Senate, drawn from the ef- 
fect produced by encouraging learning in the western states 
alone, upon the relative moral power of the Atlantic and 
Mississippi states. They are far from wishing to make nuy 
objection to the augmentation of the intelligence and men- 
tal improvement of the people of the west. On the con- 
trary they sincerely desire the advancement of their bre- 
thren in that quarter of the Union, in everything, that can 
strengthen, dignify and embellish political communities. 
But while they entertain these sentiments, they cannot shut 
their eyes to the political preponderance, which must ulti- 
mately be the inevitable result of the superior advantages 
of education there, and they must therefore ardently de- 
sire, that the same advantages be extended to the people of 
the Atlantic states. 

Your committee are persuaded, that from the views, which 
they have thus presented, on the subject of appropriations 



( 2S } 

of public lands for the purposes of education, the Senate 
TV ill be satisfied, that Maryland, and the other states, which 
have not yet had the benefit of any such appropriations, ar© 
entitled to ask of the general government, to be placed ou 
an equal footing with the states, which have already re- 
ceived them. They believe that no one, convinced of the 
justice of such a measure, can question its expediency; nor 
can they entertain any apprehension, that an application to 
Congress, supported by the combined influence of all the 
states, which are interested, would fail of success. For 
the purpose therefore of drawing the attention of the Na- 
tional Legislature to this important subject, and of obtain- 
ing the co-operation of the other states, your Committee beg 
leave to recommend the adoption of the following Resolu- 
tions: 

Mesolvedf by the General Assembhi of Maryland, That 
each of the United States has an equal right to participate 
in the benefit of the Public Lands, the common property 
of the Union. 

Mesolved, That the states, in whose favour Congress have 
not made appropriations of land for the purposes of edu- 
cation, are entitled to such appropriations as will corres- 
pond, in a just proportion, with those heretofore made in 
favour of the other states. 

MesoHed, That his excellency, the Governor, be request- 
ed to transmit copies of the foregoing Report and Resoluti- 
ons to each of our Senators and Representatives in Con- . 
gvess, with a request, that they will lay the same before 
their respective Houses, and use their endeavours to pro- 
cure the passage of an act to carry into effect the just prin- 
ciple therein set forth. 

Mesolved, That his excellency, the Governor, be also re- 
quested to transmit copies of the said Report and Resoluti- 



{ S3 ) , 

ons to the Goveruors of the several States of the Union, 
with a request, that they will communicate the same to th© 
Ugislatures thereof respectively, and solicit tiieir co-ope^ 
I'ation. \ 

All which is respectfully submitted, 

Y. MAXCY, Chaimam 



IN SENATE, January 3©tli, i^gtv 
Eead the first time and ordered to lie on the table. 

By order, J. jy. WATKINS, Clk. 

IN SENATE, Feb. 5, 1821. 
Read the second time and ordered to lie on the table, 

By order, J. N. WATKINS, Clfe. 

IN SENATE, Feb. 9, 182I. 
Read the third time and assented to. 

By order, J, N. WATKINS, Clfc. 

BY THE HOUSE OF DELEGATES, Feb. 9, 1821. 
Head the first time and ordered to lie on the table. 

By order, JOHN BREWER, Clk. 

BY THE HOUSE OF DELEGATES, Feb. 13, 1821, 
Read the second time and assented to. 

By order, JOHN BRE WER, Clbi 

I certify the foregoing to be a true Copy of the Original^ 



jiu,-vy ■ uISRARY OF CONGRESS 



li 



021 324 557 7 



